Gimlet (Action Comics series)

From late 1956 or early 1957 onwards, Action Comics of Sydney published a series of comic strip albums based on W. E. Johns' Gimlet character. The series ran to 20 issues. Royce Bradford was responsible for the artwork of the early issues and this task was later taken over by Jeff Wilkinson.

This Gimlet series is even rarer than it's sibling, Action Comics' The Adventures of Biggles. Only a few of the Gimlet story titles are known. The stories were not republished in Britain except for three which were picked up and included in Strato Publication's 9-issue series which comprised mainly reprints of the Adventures of Biggles stories.

The first three issues were priced at 9d. From issue #4 to issue #20, the cover price became 1s. This helps to fix the publication date as after 1 January 1957, no Australian comic sold for less than 1s. Comics priced 8 or 9 d. were published no earlier than March 1951 and no later than December 1956.

List of Issues and the Gimlet stories they contain

Issue	Stories	Artist	Remarks	Cover
1	Gimlet Takes Over River of Death	Royce Bradford	Reprinted in the UK by Strato in The Adventures of Biggles (Strato) No. 7 and The Adventures of Biggles (Strato) No. 8 respectively.
2	Murder in Plastic Adventure in Soho 1	Royce Bradford	Plastic was reprinted in the UK by Strato in The Adventures of Biggles (Strato) No. 9.
3	Secret of the Tomb The Diamond of Death
4	The Search for the Abominable Snowman The Case of the Frightened Girl
5	Sinister Mission
6
7	The Chameleon
8
9	The Valley of the Past The Star of the East
10	Smugglers in the Orient Diamond Double Cross		Apparently a copy is found in the John Ryan collection of the National Library of Australia in Canberra. See this link. The specific reference is (File M128495/205) - Box 8.
11
12
13	The Missing Ace The Chameleon Returns	Jeff Wilkinson
14	Adventure in Soho 2 Captive Castle	Jeff Wilkinson	Adventure in Soho 2 is not the same story as that in Gimlet #2
15	Gimlet and the Shadow The Lurking Threat
16	Trapper in Trouble Gimlet and the Smugglers
17
18	Gimlet Meets "The Shark" Gimlet Lends a Hand		"Gimlet Lends a Hand" is not the story as found in Johns' novel of the same name
19
20	Gimlet Held for Ransom Gimlet and the Bank Robbers	Jeff Wilkinson Jeff Wilkinson

(work in progress)

External Links and Sources

• BIGGLES en Bande dessinée : Australie - this page from a French website contains excellent research and includes thumbnails of most of the comic issues.
• Ausreprints - this database of Australian comics contains bibliographic information about the various comic issues.